A great many of you are familiar with the piece I wrote in June called Incident Command System Training Sucks. In it, I identify that the foundational ICS courses (ICS-100 through ICS-400 – but especially ICS-300 and ICS-400) simply do not provide the skills training that emergency managers across all disciplines require to utilize the system efficiently, effectively, and comfortably. ICS Training Sucks turned out to be a popular piece which had a great deal of support from the first responder and emergency management community – which I am very grateful for. The amount of comments and feedback was indicative to me that I was on the right track and that I need to revisit the topic and explore more.

At the center of my argument stands Bloom’s Taxonomy. Bloom’s is a learning hierarchy which helps to identify the depth of instruction and learning. Here is Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy. We’ll…

The raging wildfires in California pose the biggest threat to residents and communities, but they also could be putting the state’s multibillion dollar wine business in jeopardy.

Vintners nears Napa Valley are concerned that the billows of smoke from the giant Rocky fire that’s so far burned 69,600 acres in Lake, Yolo, and Colusa counties could pose a risk to their grapes since the skin of red grapes—that’s now coming in contact with smoke—is used in the winemaking process. There’s worry that the smoke exposure could result in abnormal flavors. To be sure, winemakers are sending their grapes to laboratories to evaluate if the smoke is ruining their product, the Guardian reports.

A South African elephant is winning the Internet thanks to a video showing the baby chasing a flock of swallows in Kruger National Park

Kruger Sightings shared the video with the caption, “With this week being so sad after the loss of a great animal, Cecil the lion, we thought we would cheer everyone up with a video that will make you cry of happiness, rather than sadness.”

SASKATOON – A University of Saskatchewan professor hopes an external review is conducted on the province’s long-term wildfire strategy. Wildfires in northern Saskatchewan forced the evacuation of over 13,000 people earlier this year.

Toddi Steelman, an environment and sustainability professor at the university, said a review should be conducted on all phases of wildfire response at a local, federal and international level.

New project plans to plant one billion trees a year using drone technology

Time for some industrial scale REforestation.

BEC CREW

30 APR 2015

US-based organisation, BioCarbon Engineering, has announced that it will begin planting one billion trees per year using drone technology, in an effort to combat the massive levels of deforestation that have affected many of the world’s jungles, bushlands, and forests.

Led by ex-NASA engineer, Lauren Fletcher, the team looked at the issue of how rapidly trees are being felled, and reasoned that on their own, people aren’t able to combat the problem. So why not use technology to combat technology? “We are going to counter industrial scale deforestation using industrial scale reforestation,”they say on their website. “Destruction of global forests from lumber, mining, agriculture, and urban expansion destroys 26 billion trees each year. We believe that this industrial scale…

We recently visited a small Spanish town that is using social media in a new way. Our research lab is studying the town to learn how these technologies might help communities around the world become more responsive to their citizens. This is a brief report on what we know so far.

For the last four years, a town in southern Spain has been conducting a remarkable experiment in civic life. Jun (pronounced “hoon”) has been using Twitter as its principal medium for citizen-government communication. Leading the effort is Jun’s Mayor, José Antonio Rodríguez Salas, a passionate believer in the power of technology to solve problems and move society forward.

Since launching the initiative in 2011, Rodríguez Salas has been recruiting his 3,500 townspeople to not only join the social network but have their Twitter accounts locally verified at town hall. This extra step isn’t necessary to participate in the…

Tom Fisher and I would like to thank everyone who assisted with the development AFTERSHOCK. Many of the initial ideas for this game came from participants in the “Game Lab” at the Connections 2012 interdisciplinary wargaming conference at National Defense University, which focused on humanitarian assistance/disaster relief operations during the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Special thanks are due to Game Lab co-facilitators David Becker, Brant Guillory, Ty Mayfield, Gary Milante, Joshua Riojas, and Brian Train. The game also drew inspiration from the Crisis Response humanitarian assistance card game developed by Gary Milante and from the Zombiton NHS zombies-in-a-hospital game developed with Jessica Barton.

The design of the game was refined with input from a large group of playtesters. These included attendees at subsequent Connections and Connections…